Badda Bing, Badda Boom, There's a Bike/Ped Bridge In Schuylkill River Park

Before a crowd of onlookers, some incidental and some intentional, a crew raised the truss for the connector bridge at Schuylkill River Park this morning.

The view from the community garden at Schuylkill River Park

The bridge connects the Schuylkill River Trail terminus with Schuylkill River Park, going over the CSX train tracks. When completed this fall, the bridge will allow bike/ped access to and from the river regardless of the presence of a train.

In place

The metal truss was driven into the city from Minnesota last night, arriving in two pieces. This morning the construction crew bolted the two pieces together, then raised it into position via a crane. The deck was lowered onto concrete and metal supports on either side of the tracks, impressively dropped onto pre-installed metal rods like some kind of oversized Ikea furnishing (the "Hööjklesvotruss").

You can see more photos from the installation on our Flick site.

Below the jump you can watch two videos of the bridge being raised and put into place. We won't pretend they make for fascinating viewing, or that the format is ideal or the commentary consistent or enlightened. But they are web videos, and we know how little prompting we really need to watch a video online. So enjoy.



The view of the raising from atop the north ramp. Video shows the truss being raised the first 5 feet, with some helpful commentary from a construction crew guy.

Eleven loooooong minutes of the truss slowly being placed onto its supports.